I don’t recall a preseason where the league came down with this many fines and suspensions.
The latest is Ed Davis, the reserve forward of the Memphis Grizzlies, who has been fined $15,000 by the league for “making excessive and unnecessary contact with Houston Rockets forward Donatas Motiejunas.” Basically, going for a shot block he smacked Motiejunas in the face (you can see it at the 1:45 mark of the highlights video above).
The incident took place with 8:42 left in the game of the eventual Rockets win from last Friday night. Davis got a flagrant 2 foul and was ejected, and that almost always leads to a fine. The league is cracking down on blows to the head, this will be pretty standard, intentional or not.
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Davis responded on twitter:
Ouch RT @KoolAidKid1990: Ed Davis Fined $15K for Contact on Motiejunas (via http://t.co/gXrWRsPagW) http://t.co/TlaEa9l6Fu
— Ed Davis (@eddavisXVII) October 28, 2013
Davis is going to be scrapping this year — he’s a backup behind Zach Randolph who will be a restricted free agent next summer. He’s very athletic, he hits the boards hard, he’s solid on defense and he’s looked like a quality rotation big in the minutes he’s gotten. When he focuses his offense on attacking and using that athleticism, not settling for midrange jumpers, he shows a lot of promise.
Expect some feistiness out of him this season as he’s playing for his next paycheck. Which should be good for Memphis — the rich get richer along maybe the best front line in the NBA.